wpd Inside 4/2017

Onshore international
wpd helps to shape the energy
turnaround in Croatia
Croatia
Katuni
Orlice
Trtar-Krtolin
Ponikve
The Katuni wind farm went into operation in Croatia
in December 2016 with twelve GE 2.85-103 turbines
and a hub height of 98 metres. The project lies on a
high plateau in the interior of the country, around 50
kilometres east of Split. The motorway to Dubrovnik
passes close to the wind farm. The easily visible logos
tell every car driver that wpd is playing an active part
in the Croatian energy turnaround.
“wpd’s well-oiled Croatian-German team that has
been in place for years, has succeeded in setting up
the infrastructure for the wind farm including a
110 kV transformer substation in only nine months
of construction time”, explains Andreas Chollet,
wpd’s Country Manager for Croatia. “The particular
challenge consisted in laying the high voltage cables
from the wind farm to the transformer substation
firstly over a steep gradient and then through the
town of Šestanovac. A plan was drawn up together
with the local authorities in order to keep the impact
on residents as low as possible.”
For the wpd Group, this was the first project with
turbines from the manufacturer GE in Croatia, but
already its fourth farm in the country. After the
Trtar-Krtolin wind farm was commissioned in 2006,
there followed Orlice in 2009 and Ponikve in 2012.
With a total of 91.8 MW, wpd operates an impressive
proportion of the total installed capacity in the country
of currently 480 MW.
Experience in day-to-day operations is also very
positive. Marijana Baričević, Managing Director at
wpd windmanager Croatia d.o.o., which operates
all four wpd wind farms in Croatia, can certainly
testify to that. “The Croatian coast has above-average
potential for wind thanks to the Bura, a strong wind
that blows down from the interior of the country.
This is underlined in impressive fashion every year
by the yields obtained from our wind farms. And
in addition, the wind farms deliver very consistent
power from one year to the next:
the yields fluctuate within
a tight corridor of +/- five
percent of the annual forecast.“
Many good arguments in favour
of further expanding wind power in
Croatia. Croatian politicians have set
their objective for total installed capacity
currently at 744 MW of wind power by 2020
which is to be promoted in accordance with the old
feed-in tariff system. Thereafter the intention is to
follow the current trend towards bidding systems.
The rules and targets for such a system, however, are
only now being discussed.
Photo above:
Laying the foundations
in Croatia‘s karst rock
Photo below:
Transporting the nacelle to
the construction site
Šibenik
Dubrovnik
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